Dysfunctional
by LimaSyndrome
Summary: Eight years after Dipper and Mabel Pines revealed the true nature of their relationship to their parents, Andrew Pines, their younger brother is left in the crossfires between his siblings and his parents, and is struggling to come to terms with the fact that he will never see his siblings again. But when the opportunity to reunite with them comes up, will he take the chance?
1. Want

DYSFUNCTIONAL

"Sometimes, we want what we want, even if we know its gonna kill us"

-Donna Tartt

WANT

Andrew Pines opened his eyes against the warm spring sun that was attempting to rise over South Carolina. He groaned and flipped himself over to the other side of the bed once the blinding light hit his eyes. It was Monday. Monday morning meant having to wake up early in the morning and having to cut through the tick infested woods to get to his school, in which he had to endure a whole day of harassment from his peers.

Regardless, he slowly rose from his bed and headed over to his bathroom. He took a long hard look at himself. He was still wearing the faded red shirt he had forgotten to change out of the night before. He didn't consider himself to look like a Pines. He had jet black hair and bright green eyes that were comparable to a tree leaf. He decided that he wasn't going to change into a new shirt, why should he care how others think of him? He slipped into a pair of jeans he found on his room floor and walked downstairs into the kitchen. His dad worked at a law firm somewhere in the city.

Sometimes he felt as if he would have been happier to have remained in Piedmont, but the decision to move was ultimately his parents', not his. It had been over 7 years since he had last step foot in California, so the thought of them moving back was pointless by now.

"He figured that his mom is probably sleeping in right now, and won't be up to make him breakfast, so he decides to pour himself some cereal. He had tried "Overly Sensitive Owl" once, back when his family was still in contact with them. He didn't like the taste anyways. He sat at the empty table and slowly ate, not bothering to check the time to see if he was too early or too late for school. He looked up from his cereal bowl to catch a glimpse of the looming family portrait.

He saw a younger version of his father, smiling for the picture. Andrew thinks to himself that he has never seen his dad smile that wide before, and it wasn't likely that he was never going to see him smile like that ever again. He also saw a younger version of his mother, before the grey hairs infiltrated her head, wearing a satin dress and a pearl necklace. Andrew notes that Mom pawned that necklace in exchange for some money to pay for old victorian house they had purchased in this suburban neighborhood outside of Charleston.

His mom was holding a toddler version of himself, who looked very different from his 13 year old self. His hair was chestnut color back then, which had gradually grown to the black state of his hair. Andrew also noticed two other people in the family portrait, who were standing on the other side of his Dad, about the same height. Andrew took notice to how neatly their faces were blackened out by a permanent marker of some sort. It was a shame. As the years went by with no regard, he forgot the sight of their faces more and more, until the only thing that remained in his memory were the thoughts of them, not the facial looks.

When he was younger, the sudden absence of them provoked many questions from him to his parents. His parents had always replied ambiguously until a couple of years later, when his parents explained the nature of his older siblings to him, which immediately stopped any questions from him about that.  
He could recall the conversation clearly, from when he was about 7.  
"It's called incest, Andrew."  
"Incest? What's that?"  
"It's when…It happens when two people in the same family decide to be together."  
"Like friends together?" He remembers timidly asking.  
"No, um… mommy and daddy together" His father responded to him.  
There was a short pause between them, for Andrew to take in what his father had said.  
"Daddy?"  
Yes son?"  
"Am I ever going to see Dipper and Mabel again?"

Andrew could see his father's face growing red, to which he attempted to calm himself down.  
"I will make sure to it that you'll never see them again. You have to understand that what they are doing is wrong. By all accounts!"  
Mr. Pines' anger was now bubbling over, and there was no way to contain it by now.  
"I will not lose my only son to their perverted lifestyle, and I will drag myself to hell and back making sure that they don't become any kind of role model to you whatsoever!" He yelled at the innocent 7 year old child.

It was at this point that Mrs. Pines started to try to calm down her husband from his anger high. She did, but he was mad for days afterwards, barely talking to anyone. He still gets mad whenever Andrew brings them up even now.  
Andrew decided that he's had enough for breakfast and started to get ready for school. He jammed his weekend homework into his knapsack and slinged it over his shoulder. It was at this point that he checked his watch. It was 8:25, which meant that if Andrew didn't get to school in 5 minutes, then he would be late. But why should he care? He only goes because his parents want him to make them proud, but sometimes he thinks that they just want reassurance that they're good parents.

Andrew slips out the back door, and walks toward a short cut through the woods that surrounds the back of his house. When he's in the woods, he feels as if he's one with the nature the encompasses the wilderness, he feels safer in the woods than he does at home, with his father, arrogant and cruel, and with his mother, self centered and vain.

Andrew knows that one day, he will visit his brother and sister. He doesn't hope, or he doesn't think he will, he knows that someday, he will finally get the chance to see his siblings once and for all. He knows that after all this time, he still loves them, and he's sure that they still love him too. The only thing that Andrew knows about their location is that they're in a small town in Oregon, not far from Portland, and they live in a tourist trap with their great uncle.  
When his brother and sister retreated from their parents, they went to the only place they knew they could live safely without the prescience of their parents, maddened with the news of their children's unnoticed relationship.

The last time that Andrew Pines ever saw his siblings was 8 years ago. Dipper and Mabel, who were both in their sophomore year, attending different schools in the Seattle area, but they shared a one bedroom apartment in the downtown area. They had come down for spring break so they could visit the family. The gaps between when they came down to Piedmont were becoming gradually longer, and Andrew was excited when he heard that they were going to keep him company for a two whole weeks.  
"When he heard the doorbell rang, Andrew ran with all of his might to for door, but his Dad beat him to it. He ran past his dad, to his young adult siblings and hugged them without even getting them first. Dipper and Mabel laughed at their younger brother's greeting, and tried their best to hug him back, Andrew being three and a half feet at that point. Dipper picked Andrew up and carried him around the porch, making whooshing sounds, making Andrew pretend he was flying. Andrew always loved it when Dipper did that, and he had fond memories when he did that when Andrew was little.

When Dipper put down Andrew, Andrew immediately asked his older siblings to play tag with them in the backyard. He had waited three whole months for his siblings to come back home, and he wasn't about to waste any time on catching up with them. mabel promised they would, but they needed to tell their parents something first. His mom told him to go upstairs and wait until she called him back down. But when his mom dismissed Andrew upstairs, he sneakily crept down the stairs and hid behind the door frame that separated the kitchen from the den.  
"Mom, dad, Mabel and I have something to tell the both of you" Dipper said to his dad, expecting anything on either side of the spectrum from one of them getting married or one of them flunking out of school.  
"Dipper hesitated before saying something that would impact the lives of himself, his sister and his parents.  
"Dad, Mabel and I…are in love"  
For his dad, everything stopped. The world stopped revolving, the birds stopped chirping, and his mind stopped thinking.  
"What did you say?" His dad asked, hoping that he misheard them.  
A second of silence passed.  
"We love each other" Mabel tried to explain, before her dad punched her in the face. She fell back in her chair, clutching her already bleeding nose. Differ lunged forward to Mabel, who was starting to sob.  
"What the hell is this? What?…HOW?" Mr. Pines said, as he tried to formulate what to say to either of them. He pointed to Dipper.  
"You…how...how could you do this..to your own sister!?" He angrily shouted to Dipper.  
Mrs. Pined was starting to sob, trying to think where and how everything went wrong. She began to visulaize herself walking in Downtown Piedmont, people whispering about her children as she walked by people she used to call her friend, before they had left her alone in the wake of this madness.  
"What…what will people think of us? How could you do this to us? How could you?!" Mrs. Pines shouted to her children, Mabel still clutching her nose, the crimson liquid beginning to seep through her fingers.

Dipper turned away from his hurt sister to face his parents, already filled with rage and anger.  
"I can't believe that I thought that you would accept us for who we are. I thought that you…I thought that you loved us, and would love us no matter what." Dipper boldly remarked to his parents./div  
"Consider yourself cut off! If you think for one second that we're going to pay for your school, you are sadly mistaken!" Mr. Pines shouted at them.  
Mabel slowly stood up from the ground to face the red frowns of her parents. Dipped put his hands on her shoulders and whispered words of reassurance to her, before kissing her full on the lips.

As if Mr. Pines wasn't angry enough, he went ballistic when he saw that kind of affection being practiced by his children.  
"GOD DAMNIT! GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE RIGHT NOW!" he shrieked at them, pushing them out of the front door./div  
"I swear to god, if I ever see any of your faces again, I will fucking kill both of you!" He shouted at them. /div  
Mabel began to cry, her tears mixing with her nose blood as it rained down her face.  
Mr. Pines grabbed the suitcases that Dipper and Mabel had carried in with hem and threw them out on the front lawn, their clothing spilling all over the grass.  
Dipper opened his mouth, as if to say something in retaliation, but quickly ran to the front yard to stuff the clothes in either of the suitcases as quickly ad he could.  
Both of them ran off the property as quickly as they could, knowing that they could never go back there.

Andrew just knew that one day, he would reunite with his siblings, he just had to. He couldn't bear that thought of living through his life, not ever seeing them ever agin. Honestly, he didn't know what would scare him more: never seeing them again, or being presented with the opportunity to meet them.


	2. Despair

**DYSFUNCTIONAL**

 **"** **It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not."**  
 **―** **J.R.R Tolkien**

 **DESPAIR**

As Andrew was walking in the woods, on his way to school, he tried to figure it all out. It was very common of him to go back to his early childhood years and see if he, in his young age, classified the relationship between his siblings.

The first step that he always takes, is when the Pines family portrait was taken, when he was about four. Whenever he tried to think about it that only thing he is certain is that he had no idea what was going on when the photo was taken.

It was a day in early summer that Mr. and Mrs. Pines decided it would be a good idea to take a family portrait of the Pines family. By that time, Dipper and Mabel were about 16 and the last thing they both wanted to do was to be dragged to this photo studio in Oakland, and have to wait three hours before their photo was finally taken. And of course, Andrew was too young to even know what the hell was happening. But there was a moment while in the car ride coming back from Oakland, that was highly questionable to him. At that point in time, their family had a used golden minivan, until they sold it in exchange to buy a car in Charleston. Andrew's carseat was in the middle seat of the back row, so Dipper and Mabel often used the optional third row in the very back.

While parents were talking about politics or something, Andrew heard a brief stifled giggle in the backseat. Their parents were too preoccupied with their conversation, and Andrew had limited access to peripheral vision, with the head barriers at the top of the seat. But Andrew was far too curious to ignore that the giggle never happened. With all of his might, Andrew pushed out of his carseat, only to be pulled back into it by his seatbelt. But he did get a glimpse of the back, but it wasn't until when they returned from spring break that he started to try to put the pieces together. Andrew could've sworn that he saw Dipper sucking on Mabel's lower neck.

Then of course, there was that time. Andrew was about 5 or so, and he lost one of his favorite stuffed animals. It was a very special stuffed bear that Andrew slept with at night. Every night. Andrew was crying, and tears were falling like raindrops down his face, and he burst into Dipper's room with out knocking first, a thing that Dipper had increasingly become angry at with the young Andrew. Andrew burst into Dipper's room, not he intent of searching the whole house, top to bottom. But he had accidentally walked in on Dipper and Mabel making out on Dipper's bed. They all froze, Andrew being very confused to what was happening, and Dipper and Mabel worrying that he would run downstairs and tell Mom about the discourse that was happening upstairs. Instead, Andrew just awkwardly backed out the room, and went to bed, the first time he had slept without his bear, and he would soon forget about the bear. When Andrew woke up the next day, he thought that it was all a dream and soon forgot all about it.

It was funny though, they did act really weirdly at breakfast and for the rest of the week, but Andrew thought nothing of it. Andrew could soon see a light at the end of the forest and eventually his school came into view. It was a nasty public school, that hadn't had a major renovation since the 90's, and it had at least 2000 kids. Andrew hated middle school. His middle school in particular. The middle school was infamous for it's underground network of black market weed. And not only that, there were some ferocious bullies that lurked it's hallways, just waiting for some poor kid to piss them off royally.

Andrew checked his watch. 8:37, he was 7 minutes late for homeroom, but it's not like they cared about perfect attendance anyways. Andrew started to walk across the soccer field that separated the end of his shortcut and the building. He walked past the parked buses and climbed the cracked stone steps into the school building. You were apparently supposed to go the front office if you arrived late, but Andrew's late almost everyday and that doesn't make a difference to him. His middle school was sanctioned off into different parts according to your grade.

The 6th graders stay in the cleanest part of the building, the 7th graders got a slightly dirty part of the building, but it wasn't much to complain about when you look at the eighth grade area of the building. Half the lockers there have had the locks on them busted and it was easy to pick those locker locks, so it wasn't a good idea to leave personal belongings hanging around in your locker. The floors look as if the janitor just looked at them and said, "Nope", and walked away with his mop and wash bucket.

Andrew arrived at his locker, the one with the outrageous graffiti and pulled out the books that he needed for his first period class. He then walked off to his homeroom class, where his teacher greeted him with a frown and a scolding about being late. He just shrugged and walked to his desk, where he remained for exactly 18 seconds before the bell rang and Andre and to face the mobs in the crowded hallways.

It was a good thing that Andrew had already gotten his books out of the hallway, because there have been some cases where kids have been pushed into lockers be the tidal waves of people in the halls. he decided to brave the mob and tried his best to get to his first period class in one piece. The class was either social studies or biology, Andrew wasn't so sure.

All Andrew was sure of was the pointing and the whispering that he had to endure that class, all because his brother and sister decided to be together. It was moments like those in which he loathed them. When the class was over, he was pulled aside by his teacher. Andrew wasn't surprised, he was slacking in his class for weeks now.

"Andrew, uh..I've recommended to the principal that you go um..see him, and he's expecting you for second period." The teacher explained.

Andrew was angry. The class next was art and he was furious that we was going to have to miss it. Art was one of the new classes that he actually liked. His parents weren't so keen on him being an artist, because it was a "girl" thing, but Andrew didn't care. He liked art, and there was no one who said he could draw. But if he didn't go to the front office, the principal would probably call his parents, and he knew he wouldn't want that. Andrew slowly trudged down the starts to the front office, where the receptionist greeted him with a teeth smile and told him to wait until he could meet with the principal. From the sounds coming out of his office, it sounded like he was chewing a kid out for beating up a 6th grader. When the captive exited the office, Andrew noticed how much this kid looked like a ball of clay which had painted on white skin color and eyes. He gave Andrew a menacing look before leaving the front office.

"Andrew Pines, please enter the office" He heard from the principal.

Andrew entered to an office surrounded with various inspirational posters, and found the principal, a man with curly red hair, fat cheeks and a round body.

"Please sit down" The principal asked.

Andrew hesitantly sat down before the principal began to chew him out.

"Andrew, I know you're a bright kid, you've always been an A student until the informations about err…your siblings leaked"

It was funny. We had moved from Piedmont, a year after my siblings told my parents about their relationship. Shortly after Dipper and Mabel left for Oregon, news began to spread around the town, that there was a family in Piedmont whose children were in a romantic relationship. And before we knew it, my family was ostracized from our community.

The Wednesday nights when Andrew's mother went out with her friends slowly became less frequent, soon becoming non-existant. Andrew could tell that his Dad's work experience became un-standable, because whenever he got home he was always mad at him and his mom. One night, he came home bubbling with anger, and tried to drown his anger in television. Andrew guesses that having that family portrait with their faces still visible on it really got to him that night, because he grabbed a sharpie and marked their faces out of the picture, both of them. It was from that day, Andrew became an only child. he no longer had any brothers or sisters. he had "perverted weirdos" that were disowned by their own family. They moved a month after that day. He learned later that my dad's boss made a joke at a staff meeting about his children.

They wanted to go to a place where no one knew them, where no one could judge them: Charleston, South Carolina. I mean, they could've moved anywhere, and Andrew's guesses his parents wanted to go to a place near the ocean, like Piedmont. They were right. There was nobody that judged Andrew's parents according to their children. To the people of Charleston, they were just a normal couple with just one boy. And it stayed like that, until Andrew messed up. Supremely. When he first arrived at middle school, Andrew met this girl named Amber. She was beautiful, long blonde hair and blue eyes, which made me attracted to her.

When he told his parents he had a crush, Andrew thinks they were relived that he was a "normal person" when it came to love. He somehow had the courage to ask her for her number. They ended up exchanging phone numbers and they began to text. One night, they were exchanging secrets about each other, and they got on the topic of siblings. She told Andrew that her brother was arrested once for drinking and driving. She then asked Andrew to tell her a secret about a family member. Andrew hesitated. He didn't want anyone to think of me as a weirdo if Amber told someone, anyone.

Andrew'll admit, it is a juicy secret to keep contained. He thought he could trust Amber and told her everything about Dipper and Mabel. She then suddenly told him she had to leave and said goodbye to me. That whole night, he was sick to my stomach about that. The next day at school, he had a nasty shock of finding out that everyone in my school had found out about my brother and sister. Things have never been the same since. The children told their mother, who in turn ostracized my mom. Andrew's dad has never treated him the same since I blabbed about Dipper and Mabel. Andrew has a feeling that we're going to move pretty soon, but they're still here. He has a theory that my parents want me to finish my school year here and they'll move us somewhere else. Somewhere that nobody knows us.

"Andrew? Hello?" The principal asked him, bringing me back into reality.

"Uh, yeah?" Andrew asked him, pretending that I was listening to him the entire time.

The principal paused.

"I was telling you that every Monday during second period, I would like you to meet with me to talk about your studies and personal problems with me".

Andrew stopped. "What did he say? What? The only people that meet with the principal are people who are contemplating suicide. Ha, if I think that's bad, wait till I hear it from my parents!" Andrew thought.

"You're just like the perverts, you're a disgrace. Just a damn disgrace!" His dad would tell me.

"Look Andrew, I know that you're not exactly keen on meeting with me every Monday, but I'm only doing this because I think it will help you progress in your studies. You currently have a C average in all of your classes and I think you're and A student." He explained.

It was true that he had straight A's until Amber told everyone about his family, then he thought that there was no point in doing good in school. Why try to make myself look good in-front of people that are judging me constantly?

"Thank you, Andrew, you can go back to class now" He finally says to him.

He got up, and walked out, without saying a word to anyone and walk quickly back to his next class. By the time Andrew got to art, everyone was already involved with some sort of project, so he just sat around, waiting for the bell to ring.

As Andrew was thinking about the possible outcomes, he realized that nobody's really analyzed his situation that much. Sure they've heard about it, but they never really think about it other than to stay away from the weirdo, him. Hell, there's people scooting away from him at his table even now! Andrew doesn't know what the outcome will be with the principal looking at his dysfunctional family, but he does know one thing: things will never be the same again.


	3. Alone

"I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone."  
― Audrey Hepburn

ALONE

Andrew's classes went on as they usually did, uninteresting as usual. He used to be interested in all of those facts until his life went downhill. The thing Andrew always loved about a fact is that it was true, and there was no one to deny it. Ever.

A fact was that Andrew was lonely. He had no one to talk to about his feelings or anything. He was afraid that if he shared his feelings or thoughts with anyone, his parents would come after him. Andrew thinks that once, his parents truly loved him.

They also truly loved them too. His parents felt betrayed when Dipper and Mabel told their parents about their relationship together. They felt they betrayed their love, that their love was undeserving for them. Andrew thinks that his parents do care about him, but they're too afraid to love him. Not like before. They think that if Andrew does something unforgivable then he will to betray their love. So his parents excel to be distant, but not too distant.

Andrew sometimes thinks that at least Dipper has Mabel and Mabel has Dipper. He has no one. No one to open up to. No one to express himself to. Nobody that loves him. He sometimes thinks that his life could've been different if his siblings were normal people. He might've been loved. He might've had someone to talk to. Or if he was just born into another family all together. Maybe he could've been born to a family that actually loves him? I guess he'll never know.

Andrew hates lunch the most. I know, it does sound like Andrew's a nerd or something. But it's because Andrew feels connected in class, he feels like he has friends because of all of the students surrounding him. His real colors are visible during lunch, when he sits alone. He's sat alone since the information about his siblings leaked. No one wants to sit next to a kid whose brother and sister are doing it.

At school, everyone is expected to be normal. Everyone is expected to follow along with the pack. You have to fit in. If you're not normal, then you're forgotten. You're not important enough to be recognized by anyone in the school. Andrew often thinks to himself that everyone's weird. In some way at the least. Some are just better at hiding it. For Andrew, there's nothing to hide. He doesn't consider himself to be especially weird, it's just that his situation is weird. If it's weird, then it's nothing to be associated with.

When school finally ended, Andrew got up, flung his nap sack over his shoulder and walked out of the building. As he was walking across the soccer field, he turned back and look at the building. He could see the commotion of after school happening before his eyes: car horns honking, students talking, students leaving the school. He always loved to watch events unfold in public. Just to view people talking with people made Andrew long for the life he never had.

Andrew walked home was slowly as possible, trying to absorb the nature around him, trying to give him a feeling on serenity and to remind him of a purpose to be alive. Once he got home, his mother was already out of bed and watching daytime television.

"Aunt Sue called, she wants to know what you want for your birthday" was the first thing Mrs. Pines said.

"I'll think about it" Andrew lamely replied.

Andrew dragged himself to the kitchen table, where he attempted to do his homework. He thought the math homework didn't make sense, probably because he hadn't been paying attention for the last eight months. For Spanish, he just wrote down random Spanish words that didn't make sense when stringed together.

Before long, his father arrived through the front door, with as usual, a tired frown on his face. Andrew could see that his father loathed his job again, like back in Piedmont. His children had ruined his life, again. He just looked at Andrew with an unhappy grunt, before joining his mother in the den.

Just when Andrew had gotten back to trying to understand his homework, his parents called him into the den.

Andrew rolled his eyes, before slowly trudging to get to the den. He sat down in a cuisine arm chair, facing his parents. Whenever his parents called him in for a conversation, it either meant big news, or Andrew did something wrong. Andrew was sweating bullets thinking that his parents know about his principal asking him to meet with him every Monday.

Andrew faced his parents. He knew that he was about to learn something big.

"Honey um..your father and I have been talking about our current…situation in our community."

They meant that they felt out of place again, that they felt like they didn't belong. Unlike Andrew, that bugged the hell out of his parents. His parents always felt like they had to fit in.

"And we've both decided that it would be easiest for us to move" His mother explained.

Boom. There it was, just like he had expected. he had seen this coming for a while, he just didn't think they would announce it just yet. He thought they were waiting for school to end.

"Your father and I have been looking around for a place to love, and we've just decided on a nice house in the suburbs of Chicago. We're planning to leave at the end of the month".

Andrew didn't think much of it. He always was indifferent towards Charleston, and he thought that maybe Chicago would be better than Charleston. Andrew didn't know.

"Yeah mom, that sounds great." Andrew replied to her.

"But Andrew honey? Could you not tell your friends about the move yet?" My mother asked me.

Andrew's parents like to think he has a social life, and that he has friends, but oddly enough, his parents have never seen these "friends". Weird…

"Don't worry about it, Mom"

She smiled brightly at Andrew and tried to spread her joy over to her husband, who was still sulking about the long day he had.

Andrew got up, and went back to his homework which was quickly interrupted by dinner.

Tonight was spaghetti and meatballs, but Andrew rarely ate in-front of his parents.

"Oh, I just have a feeling that this move is the thing for us! Just think! The Sears Tower, Lake Michigan, and just everything!" Andrew's mom beamed, pretending that they were moving because they needed a new location, like normal people.

"Listen here Andrew, this weekend we're flying to Chicago to check out the house. And I DON'T need you telling anyone you can about our…family issues" My dad suddenly said.

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Going to check out the scene, and exploring our new home!" Andrew's mom said to both of them.

"I guess" Andrew muttered under his breath.

For the rest of dinner, Andrew's dad just sat and glared at him, probably blaming him for everything that's happened since he blabbed. Dinner went by pretty swiftly, and afterwards, Andrew asked if he could have an early night.

The week went by quickly, just four more days of isolation. When his parents woke him up for the early flight to Chicago, Andrew didn't think much of it. Just another place to flee from. Andrew thought it was pointless. His parents try their best to forget about their current situation. They solve that by moving. Whenever the truth catches up to them, they just move, getting as far away from the truth as possible.

The flight didn't last that long, only about a couple of hours before landing in Chicago. When he landed, he was overwhelmed with various pictures of the Chicago skyline as he exited the airport. He could vaguely see the skyline as he walked out of the entrance. Just to think, in about 2 weeks' time, this would be his new home. They took a taxi to the north side of Chicago, where all the middle class suburbs are. After what seemed like forever of driving through roads and houses, they finally arrived at their house, a large white house that seemed a big bigger than his house back in Charleston.

The first thing Andrew did was check out the backyard. The backyard was nothing more than a patch of grass and a white picket fence. No backwoods, no woods at all for that matter, just house, after house, after house.

"Isn't it beautiful? His mother exclaimed to him as he stared at his joke of a backyard.

Eventually the realtor showed up and they talked about prices of the house. After what seemed like hours of chatting, Andrew's parents finally closed on the house. It was official. Andrew was moving. Goodbye Charleston, with your magnificent backwoods and your hellish middle schools. On the other hand, Andrew thought that Downtown Chicago was great. It was the biggest city he had been to by far and he loved every minute of it. Even know the backyard was a mess, Chicago might turn out to be interesting.

The Pines went to a hotel that was in downtown Chicago, and checked in. Their outwards view from the room was a view of the parking lot, which made the whole experience kind of miserable.

The room had two beds: one for his parents and one for himself. Once he got to the room, he lay down on the bed, without taking his shoes and pants off, and fell asleep quickly. He was tired after all.

Andrew was awakened with the ring of a phone. When Andrew lifted his head from the pillow, he discovered it was already dawn.

The phone's rings were cut off shortly by his father picking it up.

"H..Hello?" His father groggily asked the callee.

"Hello, is this Mr. Robert Pines?" The person on the other line said.

"Yes, who is this?" Andrew's father asked, slightly more awake.

"My name is Sheriff Durland, of the Gravity Falls Police force."

Andrew could hear his dad's jaw clench. Then before he knew it, Andrew had a shocking realization. Gravity Falls was the name of that peculiar town in Oregon! It was the town where his great uncle had a tourist trap! It was the place where…they lived.

"Look Sheriff, if this has anything to do with…"

"No, it has nothing to do whatsoever with Dipper and Mabel." Durland replied.

I gasped a little. This person…KNOWS my siblings? And can say their name without a twinge of anger? I didn't even know that was possible!

"I'm hear to inform you that your uncle, Stan Pines, passed last night in his sleep"

The great uncle? He died? Sure, Andrew didn't even know that much about him to begin with, but it still kinda bummed Andrew out that he never got to meet them.

"And your point is?" Mr. Pines callously answered.

"It's an uh…matter of his final will and testament" The voice responded.

Andrew could hear Mr. Pines freezing.

"The will of Stanley Pines states that Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pines would get a 20% cut of his fortune." Durland replied.

It was rumored in the Pines that the great uncle was sitting on a hundred thousand fortune, but there was no guarantee to it. For all Andrew knew, it could just be a couple of hundred bucks in pennies or something. He had heard that the great uncle was a bit…eccentric. Crazy, even.

"Okay, thank you for sharing that with me Sheriff…"

"Durland, sir"

"Sheriff Durland, thank you" His father said.

Andrew could tell that his father didn't care about the sudden death of his uncle, but the curiosity of the real amount of wealth his late uncle had been sitting on all this time.

"I assume the check will be mailed to us?" Mr. Pines asked.

"Well, not exactly" Sheriff Durland replied.

"What?" Andrew's dad asked.

"Well, the will states that you and your family gets a cut of the fortune, but a certain member of your family is obliged to receive the cut from the decedent. It states in the will, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pines, my nephew, shall receive 20% of the Stanley Pines fortune, but the only way a transaction can occur between my nephew and I is if Andrew Pines, acts as the beneficiary." Sheriff Durland explains.

Andrew's dad freezes, first in shock, then in fear. It was clear that he was thinking hard about what Durland had just said.

"Uh…t..thank you, Sheriff. I will make sure t..that Andrew Pines will act as a beneficiary." Andrew's dad replies.

"Thank you, Mr. Pines, and I hope to see Andrew Pines in the coming weeks."

"Wait. What?" Andrew thinks to himself. "What does he mean, he hopes to see me in the coming weeks?". Then it hit him. He was the beneficial. He tried hard to remember what that word meant. That meant backtracking his 7th grade english vocabulary lessons. Andrew worked hard to remember that definition. It meant: anyone receiving a gift or benefitting from a trust in final will terms.

The definition hit him before than his realization.

Andrew would have to go to Oregon on his own in order to get that 20%, or else his parents wouldn't get the money, which they were sure to want to get a cut of.

Andrew was going to go to Gravity Falls. Andrew was going to see Dipper and Mabel again.


	4. Patience

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."  
― Aristotle

PATIENCE

Andrew watched as the Chicago skyline started receded into the setting sun, as they headed off to the airport to go back home. It would only be home for another couple of weeks, so Andrew knew it wouldn't be the last time that Andrew would glance at the city if Chicago in wonder. He turned away from the taxi rear view window to see his parents in the back seat, still sulking at the arrangement made by his late great uncle. He said if they wanted to get a piece of his fortune, Andrew would have to go to Oregon. Well, now he knew the name of the town, Andrew guesses he should be calling it Gravity Falls? What a weird name for a town anyways. Andrew had never been to Oregon. He was supposed to have start going when I was 6, but by then they were already out of Piedmont and in South Carolina "for good". Until the truth finally caught up to to them.

They arrived at the airport and again, passed the many pictures of landmarks in Chicago. Andrew wondered if he might get to see all of them. He boarded the plane and before he knew it, he was back in Charleston. Andrew knew his days were now numbered there, so he began not to care about anything. he thought that if he could finally stand up to the people who had been saying that he didn't deserve to fit in with society and get away from them. He arrived in Charleston, and the first thing that happened was his parents calling him into the den, for a "family meeting". He knew what that meant. His parents were going to load him up on things he should and shouldn't do. They weren't about to lose him to them. They had arranged everything through the sheriff at that town, when and where he would be receiving the check.

"Andrew, you have to understand this, and only this. You are only there to receive the check. Nothing else. Not to get in touch with your…family members. You are not to socialize with them, period." Andrew's dad ranted to him.

"But, aren't I staying with them?" Andrew asked him. It was true, hotels up to the Pines' standards aren't exactly the easiest to obtain in a small town in Oregon. They had arranged for him to stay at the tourist trap, the same one his siblings lived, which had been arranged completely through the sheriff. When his parents said they were never going to talk to them again, they meant it.

"Don't you get smart with me, mister!" His dad shouted at him.

The whole things was a mess for Mr. Pines. The thing that he most dreaded was coming a reality. The people that he had worked so hard to protect his son from were suddenly coming back into his life. Mr. Pines prayed to god that they wouldn't share their perverted life with Andrew.

In his best case scenario, Andrew would be staying there and that would be it. He wouldn't be acknowledging them, or noticing their existence. Andrew would bring back the check and he would find that his family has obtained a quarter of a million dollars.

His worst case scenario was if Andrew decided not to come home to him, if he wanted to stay with them. He would have to personally go over them to tear them up. Andrew would probably grow up to hate him, if he isn't already.

"Look Andrew, you're going to be staying in Gravity Falls for two weeks. By that time, we'll already be settled in Chicago. You'll fly out of Charleston, stay there, get the check, and fly to Chicago, where we'll be waiting for you" Andrew's mom explained.

Andrew had one week left at his middle school, and to be honest, he was glad to get out of there. The only thing he would miss about that school is the walk in the woods that he made every day. That woods would be so hard to obtain in his home in Chicago. He heard that there was a wilderness that surrounded Gravity Falls, so he would have to cherish that until he had to be shipped off to Chicago.

He started to stand up to the bullies had been tormenting him for years. There was a particular bully that Andrew hated the most called Jackson, who had been making jokes about his siblings for years.

"Hey Pines!" Jackson shouted to Andrew.

Andrew who as usual, was eating alone at lunch, minding his own business. Once he heard Jackson's snotty voice, he jerked his head to find him smiling with a michevious grin infant of his clan of bullies.

"Can i ask you a question?" He said to Andrew.

Andrew knew that this question wasn't going to be good, and we was going to do something he would regret. Andrew pretended that Jackson wasn't even there. Jackson leaned in on his face and whispered his question.

"Are your brother and sister so fucking ugly that they have to fuck just to get some action?" He whispered in his face.

Andrew paused for a moment, taking in the question. He turned and looked at Jackson, who was smiling and his friends behind him laughing their asses off.

Andrew waited one second, and punched Jackson in the face, right on the nose. Jackson grabbed his nose and flung back and fell over a chair, still clutching his nose, and with the red liquid seeping out of his fingers. His friends looked at him, then looked at Andrew in awe.

For a second, Andrew had a flashback to when his siblings came out to his parents. How shocked they looked, how surprised. He had a flashback to when his dad slugged Mabel, and how she fell over in her chair. Just for a second, Andrew relived that experience, remember how awestruck he was when those events unfolded in-front of him.

"Are you crazy?" One of Jackson's friend shouted at him, bringing him back to reality.

Andrew looked around the cafeteria. Everybody was watching him, and the only thing that was audible was the multiple whispers that were going around the tables that surrounded Andrew.

Jackson slowly got up, still holding his nose, and bravely uncovered it. was it supposed to be bending that way? It was pointing to the left, and there was blood still coming out of it. It was obvious that Jackson was seriously hurt. His friends guided him out of the cafeteria and to the school nurse's office. Everyone was still looking at Andrew, wondering what he would do next. He paused for a moment, taking in everything that just happened, and then stormed out of the lunchroom.

He leaned against the lockers, just thinking about what would happen to Jackson, and him. then, then bell rang, and everybody flooded out of the lunchroom. They sort of crowded around Andrew, noticing that he was probably there the entire time, and just walked past him to class. Andrew didn't go to class. He didn't see a point. He remained there, until he was clear into the principal;s office via intercom. He slowly trudged over to the front office and checked in with the receptionist. Soon enough, the principal told him to get into his office.

he asked him to sit down, and once he did, the principal sighed.

"Andrew, Andrew, Andrew. I was hoping we wouldn't have to meet like this" he said to him.

Andrew just sat there, just hoping to take whatever he had to say and be done with it.

"You're supposed to be a good kid, Andrew. A good kid who always shows up to class, who tries hard at everything, and who does NOT PUNCH PEOPLE IN THE NOSE. Witnesses report that you walked up to Jackson, and started punching him without reason, until he started to cry. Is this true?"

"What? No!" Andrew screamed at protest.

The principal sighed at relief.

"Oh, good. I was hoping that it was a lie." The principal said.

"I just punched him once, in the nose because he said obscene things about my siblings". Andrew tried to explain.

"Oh, god Andrew, you can't do that!" The principal told him.

"What! But he-"

"Look, Andrew, Jackson's mom is on the PTA, and she has the power to ruin all of our lives, and once she finds out that some kid beat up her son, she isn't going to have any mercy! I know that life is hard for you, because of your siblings' life choices, I understand that. But you just gotta deal with whatever you got. I'll admit it, life's hard, but we have to take what we're offered, because that's what we do." He said to Andrew.

Andrew just sat there quietly, hoping that the principal would stop taking soon.

"Now, you get to class right now. And I ever catch you punching anyone ever again, you'll be expelled."

Andrew knew that this was rubbish. The principal probably let people off the hook for committing the same consequences, repeatedly. "He just wants to maintain an image of me being a model citizen or something." Andrew thought to himself.

Andrew got up and walked over to his class, where his teacher was already immersed in his lecture. When Andrew entered the room, everyone turned to him and started, looking to see what he would do. Andrew just walked in, plopped his stuff at an empty desk and put his head down for the rest of the lesson. The classes went on with no end, and when they finally did, Andrew slowly walk home, knowing that my parents already knew what went down. When Andrew did get home, he was surprised to find that both of his parents greeted him glumly as they did everyday, and he attempted his homework, as usual. It got to dinner when he almost thought he could get away with this, when his father spoke to him.

"Andrew, your mother and I are really proud on how you stood up for yourself at school today" Andrew's dad said to him out of the blue.

Andrew stopped, with this confession that his parents knew what happened blowing him away".

"It shows us that you're becoming a man by showing your dominance and it really makes us happy that you don't take anything from anybody" His dad explained to him.

Andrew was confused. His parents were happy that he punched a kid? He was happy that he hurt someone? Why? Maybe his parents wanted him to show to their families that they weren't going to do nothing while their kid is being bullied? Andrew didn't know. All he did know that soon, he would be going to Gravity Falls soon, to finally meet his sibling once again at the end of the week.

The days of that week for some reason flew by, and for whatever reason, some of Jackson's friends started to sit at Andrew's table, abandoning the badly hurt Jackson. Maybe the thought he was the alpha male or something. Or that they thought Jackson was weak now. But Andrew knew it wouldn't last. On the final day he was to be enrolled in that school, the plan was that he would complete that school day, walk back to his house for the last time, grab his prepackaged suitcase, and have his parents drive him to the airport, where he would fly from Charleston to Seattle, for a whopping 6 hour layover, and finally fly to Portland, where Dipper and Mabel would be waiting for him, and then would take him back to Gravity Falls.

Finally, Friday rolled around, and when his parents woke up, they were not excited to see their son fly off to be with the perverted weirdoes. Andrew woke up at 8:31, and slowly got ready. His parents didn't care about him being late on that day, it would be the last time he would every see that school again. He got dressed and skipped breakfast and slowly walked to school, cherishing the second to last time he would ever walk in the South Carolinian forest. He got to school, at 9:07. His teachers wouldn't be happy with him when he entered the school, and they weren't. His biology/world history teacher openly ridiculed him for being tardy so many times this past year and told him he was to serve an after school detention on the following Monday. Andrew only laughed to that, and just went to the usual place he sits and did nothing but stare into a corner the entire period. The day went on until lunch, where Andrew, who usually ate lunch alone, was now surrounded by Jackson's entire pack of brick heads. I could see Andrew, with his nose wrapped gauze and a big bruise around it, staring at him, imaging that ways that he's going to beat Andrew. Too bad that he'll never get the chance.

In a way, Andrew dreaded the end of the last period, because it would be the last time he would be alone in the wondrous forests of South Carolina. He was told there are forests in Illinois, but he would have to drive out there, and that would probably be too much of a hassle for his parents.

Before long, the bell rung, releasing all of Andrew's anxiety of ever being tormented by anyone at that godforsaken establishment. He went on one last tour of the school, wandering it's hallways and classrooms. One of his teachers told him to have a good weekend and that he'll see him on Monday. Like that'll happen.

Once Andrew's final tour was finished, he wandered out in-front of the building, walked across the soccer field, and climbed the short hill to the backwoods. He trudged along the dirt path, experiencing the beauty of the nature that he took upon himself to experience for himself, feeling the pattern of the green leaves, and the bark on the tree. It would be a long time after Gravity Falls for him to be this close to nature again. As Andrew walked further and further away from the school, he never looked back once.


	5. Wonder

"It is a happiness to wonder, it is a happiness to dream."  
― Edgar Allen Poe

WONDER

Andrew looked out of the car, watching the city of Charleston whiz past him, for the last time. His parents were driving him to the Charleston International Airport, in which he was supposed to fly to Seattle, where his siblings went to college. and be bored there for six hours, and then fly to Portland, where his siblings would be waiting for him. he shuddered at the thought that in a few hours, he would be seeing them again, face to face. God, it had been so long since he had seem them, he didn't even know how to recognize them out of the crowd.

He hadn't even seen a photograph of them in years, as Andrew thought back to the blackened faces. Did they have a picture of him? Maybe they had a picture of him when they left for college or something. Andrew can only assume when his parents cut them off, Dipper and Mabel dropped out. All Andrew knew is that Dipper went to a fancy private college and Mabel went to an art school, and they shared an apartment. When his parents cut them off, it happened so fast. Andrew didn't even know what was happening at the time. He just assumed that after they were thrown out of the house, they would come back and they would all play tag or something. "Well, that game of tag's been overdue for eight years now", Andrew thought to himself. He saw the big letters that read, "CHARLESTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT" flash above him as he entered the terminal.

The car stopped in-front of the sliding doors that entered the airport. Andrew grabbed his backpack, and got out with his mom while his Dad stayed out in the car, waiting for his wife to rejoin him. Andrew's mom helped get his luggage out of the car, and offered to walk him to the door. Andrew extended the handle on the rolling suitcase and started to pull the suitcase behind him.

"Andrew, you remember, just get the check. That is the main purpose of this trip, nothing else. You better not come back with any phone numbers or email addresses, or I'll quickly put a stop to that." Mrs. Pines reminded him.

"Yeah, mom" Andrew replied glumly.

They approached the terminal.

"Look around, Andrew, this is the last you're ever gonna see of this city." Mrs. Pines said to Andrew.

Andrew turned around and squinted at the Charleston skyline barely visible at the terminal gate, and tried his best to take it in, but to no avail. To be honest, Andrew was glad to get out of Charleston. It was a boring place, and the people, at least at his school, were horrible.

He turned away from the skyline to see his mother offering a handshake for him. Andrew's mother had never been there for him. Not emotionally anyways. Andrew always had memories ta the back of his head of his mom actually being there for him, but they were nothing but distant memories by now.

He shook his mom's hand and went inside the airport, turning back once to see his mom walking the opposite direction to his car, ready to drive away. Andrew watched the car drive down the road, making twists and turns, eventually becoming out of view. He was on his own now. Nobody to tell him what to do and what not to do.

He hauled his baggage up the stairs, to security in which he was asked to take his shoes off, and step though the metal detector. Yeah, a thirteen year old white kid? He totally was a terrorist. He received his backpack, suitcase and shoes after all of that business. Andrew thought that all that baloney you had to go through just to get on a plane was bogus. After he arrived at the screen to see what gate number was his flight, he thought to himself, "I want to see the space needle". He was instantly dizzy by this request from his subconscious. Why would he suddenly want to go the space needle? Sure, he knew he would be bored the entire time in Seattle, but the space needle? Andrew slowly walked to the gate and waited for half an hour before boarding the plane.

He was assigned a seat next to a couple, who had chosen to stay away from the window seat. He always loved the feeling you get right after you tale off, and felt it again as he left Charleston forever, never to return.

Andrew sat there, as he flew over multiple flyover states. Andrew had nothing to do, he was bored out of his ming in that flight, flipping back and forth in a book he's read a thousand times.

When the finally landed, Andrew was anxious about getting out of that small, enclosed plane. He had the need to run a marathon right there and then. Then the thought popped in his head again. "I want to go to the space needle" he thought to himself.

How would he even get to the space needle? He is only thirteen after all. Andrew walked out of the plane and into the airport itself. If he didn't go, then he would have to spend 6 hours of his life here, waiting. He was one step closer to his siblings once again. He hadn't been this close to them since Piedmont. He felt so anxious about meeting them again, it was unbearable.

He felt the need to bury his anxiety with a walk. He walked up and down the airport, waiting for the flight to Portland to finally be boarding. he tried to not think about wanting to go to the space needle, but he knew he wanted to see it. It wasn't often for Andrew to travel and he really wanted to see the city of Seattle, the city he was probably never going to go back to. After an hour of waiting, he couldn't take it anymore and asked a security guard at the airport how to get to the space needle. The security guard told him to get on the Seattle Monorail, and where and when to get off.

Hesitantly, Andrew purchased a ticket and got on the monorail and rode it all the way through the city. He caught a glimpse of the skyline of Seattle, as he headed on his way to see the space needle. To Andrew, each skyline tells a story about the city. It describes the context of a city and gives it purpose. For Seattle, the skyline gives Andrew a feeling of the city. Andrew liked Seattle, it had a nice feel to it, probably better than Charleston. Just to think, his siblings went to college somewhere down there. Before Andrew knew it, the monorail pulled in-front of the looming space needle. He paid the five dollars that the ticket demanded, and exited the monorail. There was a short sidewalks, which was lined with trees, leading up to the giant tourist attraction.

The first thing he noticed was the height of it, he had to crane his neck just to get a full picture of the space needle. It was beautiful to finally see it up-close. It's always rejuvenating to see something that you've seen only in pictures. He walked around the needle, trying to bypass the crowd of people around the space needle. Andrew eventually found a park bench and just looked at the space needle, with the skyline of Seattle in the background, which made the whole view look beautiful. As Andrew sat there, the time got away from him as he watched the timeless view. Andrew figured he would head to the airport at dusk, but unfortunately, other people with the same idea crowded the monorail lines and took an hour just to catch a train back to the airport. When he did catch the train, it was crowded and smelled like B.O. When Andrew finally got back there, he realized he only had 20 minutes to make it to the gate to Portland.

Andrew stopped. Thoughts like, "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE SPACE NEEDLE?" and "YOU"RE GOING TO BE STUCK IN SEATTLE" raced through his mind. But before Andrew could react to his situation, he started run sprint like crazy. Like any person who would was going to be late to a flight to meet your incestuous siblings, Andrew was running like crazy. Dodging people, dodging trashcans, dodging anything just to make it to the gate. When he finally did, they were just closing the gate door when he came running into the flight attendant, begging for her to open the door back up. She smiled and said that he caught her in the nick of time.

He handed her his boarding pass, and before he knew it, he was on his way to Portland. During that short flight of an hour to Portland, Andrew couldn't contain his excitement of finally seeing them. He's had many daydreams over the years of this very event happening, different scenarios, different endings, but he knew that only one of them would end up to be true. The other people sitting beside him noticed this too, because they asked him to stop bouncing in his seat.

Andrew's heart felt ready to beat out of his little chest when the plane touched down in Portland. It was too dark to see any skyline in the city, but that didn't matter to Andrew. When the plane docked with the airport, Andrew rushed out of the plane, excited to finally be here. A mix of emotions ran through Andrew. Some happy, some confused, some excited, some anxious. It was a mess of feelings to be there. When Andrew's feet touched the ground of the Portland Airport, he felt like he wanted to run back into the plane, because he was so scared. In fact, Andrew was shaking all over just to be there. he didn't know what to expect. But when he walked around the airport, he was confused as to where you would exit. Was it over there? Or here? Andrew desperately searched for some sign that said "arrivals". Some traveler who looked as if he had travelled the world already, even though he looked like a twenty something guy, must've seen Andrew look frustrated, because he pointed him in the direction of the arrivals.

Andrew looked towards the direction he was pointing at and started waking towards it. He ended up at the mouth of a hallway. he froze for a second, letting any worries and concerns wash over him, and started to walk down the ramp of arrivals.

This was it. The moment of truth. The moment where when he spotted his siblings in the crowd, the chariots of fire soundtrack would play in the background and he would run towards his siblings and have a big group hug, and reconnect. But when he got to the arrivals, a big room behind two metal doors, there were too many people there, so many that he couldn't distinguish them out of the crowd.

After all, it had been awhile since he had seen their faces. But they crowd was so packed, that he couldn't distinguish them if he tried. He ended up not finding them immediately in the dense crowd at the Portland Airport. He decided to wait it out, hoping they would show up sooner or later, after all, he was going nowhere without Dipper and Mabel. In the arrivals, there were people greeting family members, old friends, long lost twins, you name it. Andrew felt out of place there, watching family members greet people with joy, instead of detest. He left as if he lived a life not worth living as he brooded, watching people reconnect with loved ones. Just as Andrew felt as if Dipper and Mabel forgot about him, he heard a voice he could easily distinguish.

"Mabes, are you sure that this is the right place?"

He instantly turned around to find a crowd blocking the source of the voice. He wasn't worried or anxious, he was genuinely curious to find the source of the voice. Without thinking, he rudely shoved his way through the mass group of people to their dismay, to find a man and a woman, both with chestnut brown eyes with strangely familiar faces.


	6. Fear

"Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart."  
― Paulo Coelho

FEAR

It was them. It really was them. All these years, all of this time spent in confinement from them, and there they were. All the lectures his father had given him about the wrongs of incest, all of the nagging his mom had given him abut them, and here they were, trying to find him. He watched as they wandered the arrivals crowd at the Portland Airport, searching for the person who had the face most similar to his. He noticed that Dipper was wearing green shirt under a long sleeved flannel shirt with jeans, and that old hat with the tree on it. Andrew also noticed that he had grown chin stubble. Mabel was wearing a loose fit shirt, having long grown out of her sweater phase, and was wearing a headband. And one more thing. They were holding hands. Boy, if Andrew's father saw that, he would give them one hell of a beating. Both of them. It didn't matter to Andrew's dad.

Andrew just stood there, noticing all these differences of his siblings from the last time he saw them. He froze, afraid to act or do anything. Everything that was happening came crashing in on him: yes, this was actually happening. He was actually looking at his siblings, not the blackened out faces that loomed above the kitchen, the real deal. Andrew didn't want to move. He suddenly became to shy to do anything. All of his insecurities like, "What if they don't like me?", and "What if they don't want to talk to me?", came flooding around him in a giant mess of fear. He was afraid after all this time of waiting to see them again, they wouldn't even like him or talk to him".

"ANDREW!" He heard a voice shout, shattering the moment in time he was frozen in. His heart skipped a beat. He jerked his head up to see Mabel pointing at him and smiling, with her mouth agape. He didn't know what to do. There was no turning back now, he had to do this. He took one step towards them. Dipper was also looking at his older sibling, who had made an age jump from six to thirteen years old since the last time he saw them. Andrew forced every molecule of bravery in him to continue walking towards them. Andrew was trying his best to stop his heavy breathing, trying to conceal any twinge of awkwardness and nervousness from his facial expression. He looked back up to see both of his siblings faces still lighten up as they viewed him.

Mabel couldn't take it anymore and lunged at Andrew in a tight hug, in which Andrew was totally unprepared for. To be honest, Andrew hasn't hugged anyone since the last time he saw them. As Mabel was nuzzling into Andrew shoulder, Andrew just held his arms out, not sure what to do with them. Andrew looked at Dipper, who was laughing at the events of Mabel so intertwined at Andrew, who was basically awkwardly standing there. When Mabel finally released Andrew from her grasp, Andrew leaned back to find the face of his older sister.

"Oh my gosh..I..I can't believe how much you've grown!" was the first thing Mabel had said to Andrew in eight years.

It was true, that Andrew was about three and a half feet the last time he saw her and now he was bordering on six feet. In fact, he was almost as tall as her. Andrew noticed that Mabel was just as tall as Dipper.

"Y..yeah. I guess I am taller" Andrew managed to squeak out.

Dipper all of a sudden held out his hands, in preparation of a hug from Andrew. Andrew stopped. Andrew never was comfortable hugging someone, especially someone who had been absent from his life for eight years. He did the once thing he knew he would be comfortable with. Andrew held his hand out for a handshake. Dipper paused at Andrew's enlarged hand, and after a second, finally got the clue, and hesitantly shook Andrew's hand, confused at Andrew's social awkwardness.

"I just can't believe that you're here!" Mabel said with glee, in hopes of ruining the awkward tension.

Andrew just stood there, not sure what to do about anything. He had waited for this moment fro so long, and he was ruining it with every passing second. He wanted to act like a chilled out suave guy, who wouldn't freak out, who wouldn't say anything stupid, everything he wasn't. But he couldn't just say nothing. He had to force something out.

"I just…I can't…It's just so good to see you!" Andrew chokes out to them.

A wide grin grows on Mabel's face, who then goes in for a second hug. Andrew decided he's going to try his best to accept it. He slowly raises his hand over Mabel's back, and gently sets them down on what Andrew can only guess is her bra strap pushing against the fabric of her clothing.

Sometimes Andrew felt as if he never really got to know his siblings. He was born when they were both 13, and the news about his mother being pregnant again had been broken to them right after they arrived in Piedmont, from that summer in Gravity Falls. God, that summer. He had heard so many stories about that summer, it was hard to piece them together. He remembered staying up with Dipper and Mabel in pillow forts they had built over weekends, hearing countless story, after story, after story. He just assumed they were trying to scare him or something. They were, right?

"Have you guys been hugging long enough?" Dipper asks us jokingly.

Time suddenly caught up to Andrew and he realized he had been locked in a hug with mabel for at least 30 seconds. He looked around and saw that there were people looking on at him, laughing. It reminded him of school, of how people laughed at you for doing the simplest things wrong. But he didn't think they were criticizing him, they had friendly smiles on their faces after all.

"Well, I'm sorry if I want to reconnect with out younger brother, right bro-bro?" Mabel asked Andrew.

Andrew froze. She's never called him bro bro before. She's only called Dipper that, from what he can remember. Then again, he hasn't seen her for years.

"I…You have no idea how much I've missed you guys" Andrew said, feelings his speaking skills were slowly progressing.

"We've missed you too" Dipper replied, still smiling from the joy of reuniting with his younger brother.

Andrew just couldn't believe this was actually happening. He was…talking with his siblings. Actually talking. All they did when he was younger was just play around, but they were speaking like civilized people. Andrew had longed for this moment for so long, but for some reason, something felt…lacking. Felt as if something wasn't all there.

"Well, grab your stuff, we better head on over to Gravity Falls if we don't want to be tired out of our minds!" Mabel cheerfully exclaimed.

Andrew pulled my suitcase behind me as we left the arrivals area of the Portland Airport. They walked down the hallways, Dipper and Mabel leading the way as Andrew trudged along. Andrew noticed that they were holding hands as they were walking. he thought to himself for a minute. His parents never held hands like that. At least he couldn't remember holding hands. What makes their relationship so different from his parents? His dad had explained to him that they were in love the same way "Mommy and Daddy" were in love. But it didn't seem like that. It felt more free. Sure, Andrew knew that it was wrong for them to be together, but the truth was the truth.

They exited the airport into the cold Portland air, it was January after all. It felt much colder than the air in Charleston, Andrew thought. He lugged his suitcase, which Andrew felt he had packed too much in, to a tram bus which led them to a parking lot not far from the airport. For some reason, Dipper and Mabel had decided to park the full distance between the earth and the moon away from the tram drop off station. Dipper and Mabel didn't seem to be cold, or shivering for that matter. Maybe they were just used to it, instead of Andrew, who had spent most of his life growing up in the warm summers of the south. They finally arrived at a car which was painted red, but had a white top to it.

"All aboard the Stanmobile! Hoot hoot!" Mabel exclaimed while pulling her upward arm down.

Dipper helped Andrew load his suitcase in the trunk, and made their way around to the front. Andrew sat in the back, while Dipper and Mabel sat in front.

They pulled out of the parking space and headed out of the parking lot, into the unknown.


	7. Innocence

"No one loses their innocence. It is either taken or given away willingly."  
― Tiffany Madison

INNOCENCE

"Y'know, our Grunkle Stan used to own this car" Dipper casually mentioned to Andrew.

Andrew turned away from the car window to look at Dipper. They had been driving for about fifteen minutes now, and Andrew had become so preoccupied with watching the lights of Portland whoosh past the car, and as those bright lights eventually receded into the darkness of the night.

It had been awkward silence ever since he entered that car, besides little side conversations between Dipper and Mabel in the front.

To be honest, he didn't know what to say to them. Years of being told they were going to hell, and there they were, right in front of him. What would you say?

"G-grunkle?" Andrew asked, not remembering hearing anything about a "grunkle".

"Yeah, Grunkle Stan. He owned the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls." Dipper replied.

Mystery Shack? Another nonsensical term to Andrew. Was it the name of the tourist trap or something?

"Oh, you would've liked Grunkle Stan. He was…he was the best grunkle anyone could've asked for. He accepted us when…no one else would." Mabel explained to Andrew, with a barely visible smile.

Andrew thought back to when his father punched Mabel in the nose so hard, that she fell over in her chair. He remembered the outrage he had against them at that moment in time. He remembered the confused feeling Andrew had when he first saw them kiss, "Why were they kissing?" Andrew remembers asking himself.

"So uhh…how are Mom and Dad anyways?" Dipper asked Andrew.

Andrew remembered that Dipper and Mabel hadn't seen their parents in over eight years. Eight years of wondering what happened after they left. Eight years of wondering if they got over their feelings about them. Eight years of wondering how their little brother that they left behind was doing.

"Oh, uhh…they're fine. Dad works at some finance company in Charleston, or at least he did." Andrew accidentally slipped out. He faintly remembered his parents telling him not to revel anything about their move to Chicago, because they didn't want them to know where they were, they wanted to get as far away from them as possible.

"Did?" Both Dipper and Mabel asked at the same time.

Andrew didn't know what to do. Should he deny what he said? Or just come clean about it?

"Umm…y..yeah, we've decided to move to Chicago because….Dad's company's moving there." Andrew spat out. He didn't want to tell his siblings that they were the reason why he was moving away from all that madness in Charleston.

Andrew thought that it would crush both of them if they knew that they were the center of all the suffering that Andrew's had to endure from both his peers and parents over the past eight years.

"Oh…that's great! It's good to have a change of scenery once in awhile!" Mabel cheerfully exclaimed, obvious to the real reason of the Pines' departure from Charleston.

"So umm…Andrew?" Dipper asked Andrew nervously.

"Y..yeah?" Andrew replied, not sure what to expect from them. Knowing them, he was expecting to hear something that would make his parents' blood boil if they were there will them.

"Mabel and I were wondering if…Mom and Dad would be open for us to visit them sometime" Dipper said, hopefully awaiting an answer that would relieve him of the stress that's been plaguing him for years.

Andrew stopped. The years upon years of torture about this came flooding back to him, from the time his parents punched his sister to the last lecture he was given from his parents, in the car to the airport. All of these horrible memories that no person should ever have to endure reentered his mind, and made him afraid of what his parents were to do if they ever laid eyes on their twin children ever again. His father, after eight years, would live up to his promise, and beat both of them up.

Andrew had gotten a couple of smacks from his father over the years, mostly due to minor things, as his father descended further into the realization of the full problem he faced: as long as Dipper and Mabel were together, he would never he happy again. It would always follow him, no matter how fast he were to run, it would always catch up. No matter what he would do in life in effort to try to forget about them, there would always be a reminder once in a while that Dipper and Mabel still existed. They were still together. They were always going to haunt his thoughts, reminding him of the monstrosity life had put on his shoulders.

Mrs. Pines had never been worried about the state of her children's relationship, but the state of her social status. She had a constant fear that she would be rejected by her friends because of her children. When someone were to look at her, they would not see her as a person, but they would see the woman whose kids ended up in a romantic relationship. It happened quickly in Piedmont, all of her closest friends started to drift away from her, not wanting to be around that strange woman.

That was part of the reason why they moved. After the big kerfuffle in the seventh grade, when Andrew revealed to a "friend" about his siblings, the rumors spread from the kids to their parents and mutated from them living in a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere, to Mrs. Pines' children running an incest farm in the middle of the desert, with a dozen kids who ran around naked and lived in dirty trailers. Yeah, who would want to hang out with someone who gave birth to that? It only took a couple of months for Andrew's mom to be completely ostracized from her community. Mrs. Pines look refuge in her house and spent all of her time cleaning it and watching rom coms on Lifetime.

And all of this revolved around Dipper and Mabel and their life choices. Something that had no relation to Andrew and had been forced on him unexpectedly.

"Mom and Dad's been kinda…bummed out since…y'know" Andrew tried to explain to them.

Dipper and Mabel took one look at each other and knew exactly what he meant. Their parents wanted nothing to do with them. The same people who had taken care of them for the first nineteen years of their life, didn't even acknowledge them as people, let alone their own children. Mabel let her head down in sorrow and started to sob, knowing full well that if she wasn't welcome to her parents by now, she wouldn't be welcome for the rest of her life.

Andrew started to feel sorry for her, and for the first time, he tried to put himself in his sister's shoes.

It must be hard for her to exist, hard for her to be accepted in this world. If Andrew thought that it must be hard for his mother to go out in public, then it wouldn't seem as severe compared to his twin siblings. Hell, Dipper and Mabel probably never leave that tourist trap, or the Mystery Shack, as they called it.

Andrew felt himself being thrust to the left, and saw bright lights flooding the dark car. Andrew looked around. They had pulled over at a road side convenience store, which was mostly empty except for another car filling up their gas tank. Dipper pulled over towards a gas pump and parked the car. Andrew figured they must be at least an hour away from Portland by now. Dipper got out of the car, and before filling up the tank, knocked on the door of the backseat, asking him to get out of the car and to leave the sobbing mabel alone in the front seat. Andrew got out of the car to face his twenty-seven year old older brother.

"Hey Andrew, can you run into the store and get some juice or something for all of us?" Dipper asked Andrew, handing him a crisp ten dollar bill.

Andrew nodded, took the money and started to run off, but not before being stopped by Dipper.

"Also could you get some skittles or...something sweet for Mabel?" He asked Andrew, looking at Mabel, still sobbing with her head down in the car.

Andrew again nodded at Dipper and walked off to the bright lights of the looming convenience store ahead.

He heard a bleeping sound as he entered the store, awaking the cashier from her slumber; customers must be rare in this store. Andrew wandered the aisles of the room, before grabbing three bottles of apple juice and grabbing a red plastic sack of skittles for his sister.

He walked up to he counter and spilled the contents in his arms not he counter. The cashier sighed, and scanned all of the items and asked for money. Andrew shakily handed her the ten dollar bill and only got a couple of coins back. She hastily dumped the drinks and bag of skittles in a plastic bag with the store's logo on it, wanting to get back to being paid to sleep on the job.

Andrew ran out of the store back to Dipper, who was just finishing up at the gas pump, and handed him a bottle of the juice he had just bought and handed him back the coins Andrew had received in change.

Andrew then proceeded to walk over to the passenger car door, to see Mabel leaning against it in sorrow. At first Andrew didn't know what to do, except watch her silent weep at her situation.

Mabel eventually noticed Andrew awkwardly standing there and rolled down the window to see her younger brother pulling out a drink and a bag of candy.

"Th..thanks Andrew, you're the best little bro a girl could…ask for" Mabel squeaked out, as she wiped away her tears and smiled as best she could. Andrew extended her arms with the snack, and Mabel gleefully took it, ripping the package of skittles and started to pop the little candies into her mouth, cheering her up somewhat.

Andrew walked back to the backseat car door and opened it and entered the car, waiting for Dipper to get back in the car. It wasn't ten seconds until Dipper got back in the car, and hugged Mabel as she was slowly eating the skittles, still silently crying. Dipper proceeded to kiss her on her left cheek, in hopes of helping her feel better. Andrew watched as Mabel hugged her brother back in a romantic embrace, feeling each other with every movement.

They didn't move for another five minutes, holding each other, knowing that they would never be lonely as long as they had each other. Andrew just awkwardly sat there, hoping to sink into the carseat.

Mabel, now feeling better, leaned away form Dipper and towards the wall of the car. Dipper started the car up and turned the car back on the interstate, driving towards their destination.

"We're going to be in Gravity Falls in another hour" Dipper said to Andrew, while keeping his eyes on the luminated road.


	8. Reconnection

Anybody with artistic ambitions is always trying to reconnect with the way they saw things as a child.

-Tim Burton

RECONNECTION

The red car, which had been driving on Route 5 Oregon Interstate for almost two hours now, took a right turn off the street, onto a back road which would eventually lead them to Gravity Falls.

This was it. This was the moment that Andrew was supposed to remember forever and ever. The moment when he would finally see Gravity Falls, a place where he was promised to visit when he was older, but the promise was taken back before it could be put into action. He had always wanted to meet this Great-Uncle, or rather, "Grunkle" of his.

He was told that when he was born in California, the plan was always for his to go up to Gravity falls every year starting at 6. That was quickly put to a stop the spring break before the planned Gravity Falls trip that summer. Andrew always tried to compare his family issues to other people his age, and always found that his situation was especially messed up. because of Dipper and Mabel, his whole family was split down the middle.

You either supported them or you shunned them. If you supported them, you were also shunned. Andrew remember phrases like, "God frowns down upon them, or "Jesus will damn them to hell", when he was younger. Strange, his family wasn't that religious, and he didn't think his family was ever that religious, but it was something like this that made them go back to the bible for references to prove that Dipper and Mabel's lifestyle was to hell. But as far as Andrew could tell, they acted like a regular couple in a normal relationship.

Andrew bets that if he didn't know that they were his brother and sister, and besides the fact they looked very similar to one another, then he probably couldn't tell that they were twins in a romantic relationship.

"You doing okay back there, bro-bro?" Mabel asked Andrew, having cleared her tears up, while having her head turned to hm.

"Y..yeah. I'm fine." Andrew replied.

In all truthfulness, Andrew was afraid. Afraid that he would become attached to them. Afraid that after his time spent there, he would be fearful to leave. And after he left, it would almost be certain that he would never return, his life being run by his parents, it would be hard to visit them again, even in adulthood. He would be shunned by his parents. Even know they were distant to Andrew, they would be the only thing that Andrew would have to call family in the near future. His parents would be the only thing that Andrew could call family.

"Andrew?" Dipper called, while still keeping his eyes on the road.

"Yeah?" Andrew answered.

"We're going to be there in five minutes." Dipper replied, while approaching a fork in the road, to which he turned right to.

"O..um..okay" Andrew managed to spit out.

The car drove on the small, two lane road which was surrounded by thick wood further, until lights were visible at the end of it, gradually becoming closer.

"Oh my god, I can't wait for you to see Gravity Falls!" Mabel squeaked.

"Yeah, Gravity Falls has been good to us for these past few years. It..it was hard in the beginning, y'know. With all the "incest" business. At first we were shunned. But soon, they opened up to us and finally accepted us. Even after all we've been through, I wouldn't take back any of it if it meant I couldn't express who I truly loved." Dipper explained, while reciprocating the loving gaze that Mabel was giving him.

They looked at each other in a way Andrew hadn't seen his parents give each other for a very long time. perhaps since before Dipper and Mabel were out of his life. In fact, Andrew doesn't think he's ever seen anyone look at anyone like that, ever.

The car passed a small wooden sign planted on the side of the road, stating, "Welcome to Gravity Falls".

After all of this time, Andrew had finally arrived in Gravity Falls. Andrew was positive he would never step foot in this town. Yet here he was, entering the town of endless stories.

As the lights became closer, Andrew began to see silhouettes of buildings that have been reflected off of the street lights above. The lights of the car shone on the empty sidewalks that surrounded these small buildings. In the distance, he could see a mountain peak only visible by it's tall, white peak.

A church spire came into view, along with the rest of the building. The car swerved past a statue of a bearded man, holding some sort of flag. Then came a row of several buildings, all lined up next to main street. A barbers' shop, a police station and an arcade flew by the car as it carried on into the night.

As Andrew was watching the small, desolate town flash before him, he noticed a rather large house, a mansion, on a hill that overlooked the whole town. You could even see it's shape being illumined in the moon.

"What's that house on the hill?" Andrew asked his older brother and sister.

"Oh um, that's the old Northwest Manor. It used to Pacifica's home." Dipper explained.

"Wait, who exactly is Pacifica?" Andrew asked.

"She's…she's a friend. Sort of." Mabel answered.

Andrew thought about what Mabel had said. Sort of? How can someone be "sort of" a friend?

"Yeah, after Old Man McGucket died, the place's been empty ever since." Dipper finished.

Wow. A giant house that probably took so much effort to build, just being wasted away by sitting there, slowly rotting away? What a waste. As car drove down the main street of Gravity Falls, the buildings began to be spaced further apart, until the wilderness of Oregon surrounded them again.

Andrew was confused. He had just passed Gravity Falls's main street. How far could Dipper and Mabel live from downtown?

After a few minutes of driving, the asphalt of the road turned into a hard soil road stretching as far as the eye could see. The car started to shake at the unevenness of the dirt road., the car lights shone on a brightly colored bird's head on the top of a totem pole. The car swerved right, and a triangular building cane into view. On the top of it read, "MYSTERY HACK", with an S lazily laying on the side of the roof.

"Here we are! Home Sweet Home! For now, at least!" Mabel exclaimed, before getting out of the car.

Andrew hesitantly opened the car door and pushed himself out onto the hard, ragged soil. He reached into the car and grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. He walked over to the trunk of the car, where Dipper was already getting out Andrew's suitcase. Dipper put it on the ground and extended the arm handle for Andrew. Andrew walked over, grabbed the arm handle, and started to pull the suitcase behind him.

Andrew looked up at the giant building before him. The Mystery Shack. This was the place where Dipper and Mabel had lived for eight years. Eight long years. The place where they took refuge from his parents. Where they took refuge from norms and taboos of society.

"Come on, slowpoke!" Mabel said to Andrew, while rushing up to a side door.

Andrew trudged behind his siblings, while Dipper pulled out a ring of keys and unlocked a door, which had a sign that read, "GIFT SHOP" above it. Dipper pushed the door open and let Mabel enter the mystery shack before helping Andrew lift his luggage up the stone steps.

Andrew noticed a giant machine labeled, "PITT COLA", but was cracked and had cobwebs on it, so Andrew didn't think he would trust the machine enough to insert his money into it.

Inside, the lights flickered on to find a wooden floors surrounded by wooden walls. Andrew stepped in. He looked around to find several strange artifacts inside the "gift shop", unlike any gift shop he'd ever seen. There was a jar of eyeballs resting on the counter, a bunch of skulls on a shelf, one of them with only one eye socket, and a bunch of stone tablets with funny markings on them.

Andrew thought to when he was about five. It was the summer of when Dipper and Mabel were to go to college. Before they were to ship them off to Gravity Falls for their sixth consecutive year, Mr. and Mrs. Pines thought it would be nice to have one last family vacation together, before their oldest children were to be sent off out-of-state for a extended period of time. They drove down from their home in Piedmont to Disneyland in Anaheim.

Andrew could say that he had spent his favorite childhood memories. Disneyland through the eyes of a child is always beautiful, isn't it? Full of excitement, full of laughs, full of fun. Mabel herself, had quite a fun time there too, but Andrew didn't think that Dipper had the best of times there, because he thought of himself as, "too mature" for a place like Disneyland. But that didn't stop him from laughing along with Andrew and Mabel at the teacup ride.

The gift shops there were enormous, full of clothes, kicknacks, action figures, you name it. In fact, Andrew was promised to go there again, after Dipper and Mabel had finished their second year at college. A lot of promises were broken after they were ostracized. Sure, he did go again that summer, but it didn't feel the same, with him still distraught as to why Dipper and Mabel couldn't come with them down to Anaheim, and his parents still moping to the fact that they were short of two children all of a sudden.

"This is the Mystery Shack gift shop!" Mabel exclaimed, bringing Andrew back into reality. he looked up to find Dipper and mabel standing before him.

"We'll give you a full tour of the Mystery Shack tomorrow, but I guess you must be pretty beat huh?" Dipper asked.

Andrew nodded. He had been traveling all day, and he was ready for sleep.

He was lead out of the "gift shop" to a room that looked a little more familiar, with a television and a couch with a rug on the ground to the right and a table with chairs to the left. He went through another doorway to a stair case, which he was led up, dragging his suitcase behind him, until he emerged in a hallway.

"God, this place has been so quiet ever since Soos moved out." Dipper muttered under his breath.

After all of these people and places had been named, he decided just to go with whatever Dipper and Mabel had to say about anything in this weird town. He kept walking, following his siblings through the unknown hallways, until he reached the end of the hallway, where there was a door. When he reached the door, his siblings were waiting for them.

"So um, Andrew? Up here's gonna be your room for the time being, in the attic." Dipper explained to him.

The attic? He was being kicked into the attic by his own siblings? Cobwebs, creaky wooden floorboards, things that go bump in the night always resided in the attic. His siblings started to go up the stairs to the attic, so Andrew took this as a gesture that he was meant to follow them. After dragging himself up the second set of stairs, he finally reached the last step, where the barren floors of the attic came into view.

Andrew looked ahead to see two mattresses at the edge of the attic. The one on the right was stripped clean, and looked as if it hadn't been used in years. The one on the left had bedding and pillows, ready for someone to sleep there.

"Oh…there are so many memories in this room." Mabel told Andrew.

"Yeah, we spent out summers here in this very room. There are so…many…memories in this room". Dipper explained while looking at Mabel with a dirty grin growing on his face.

It took a few seconds for Andrew to realize what Dipper meant. Andrew immediately felt dirty just for being in this room. Dipper and Mabel…his siblings…DID it…in this room? It felt weird just to be in their presence. Not to mention that it was wrong. Wrong that they were on that kind of emotional level, being twins and all. But in all truthfulness, Andrew felt torn. Sure, he loved his siblings and they loved him but, all his life he had been told that they were peverted weirdos, and after hearing that, he couldn't help but to agree with them.

"Oh come on now, let's not make Andrew over here feel icky!" Mabel said to Dipper.

But it was too late for Andrew not to feel icky at all. It felt so weird to be in a place like that.

"Let's just leave Andrew to it. Goodnight!" Dipper smiled at him, before walking down the stairs.

"We'll see you in the morning for breakfast!" Mabel said, before following her brother down the stairs of the attic.

Andrew didn't know what to do after they left. He figured he should get some sleep while he could. He walked over the the beds, and plopped his backpack and suitcase on the empty bed to the right. He stripped out of his pants and figured he was loo lazy to change into pajamas that night, so he just settled for sleeping in his underwear. He took his coat off and threw it on the dusty attic floor.

He pulled the musty smelling covers over himself and started to think about a lot of things such as, "How much was Grunkle Stan worth?", "Will Dipper and Mabel ever be accepted by his parents?", and, "Will my life ever be the same again?". But soon, the lines of every question he had, blurred as Andrew drifted off to his well deserved sleep.


	9. Betrayal

"To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal."

-Malcolm X

BETRAYAL

Andrew's dad and been so proud of him for weeks now. Andrew had announced to the family that he was attempting to try out for his school's basketball team and his parents could not have been more supportive. Andrew's dad had bought him the latest basketball gear and even offered to help Andrew practice for basketball training, which Andrew seemed to excel at. As the days progressed and the date of the basketball tryouts Andrew was supposed to go to, he grew more nervous and more nervous about it.

As time went on, his parents seemed to be pushing him to be the best harder and harder each day. Giving him basketball tips, driving him to the park, where he was forced to play basketball for 4 hours straight, even if Andrew had plans that day.

Andrew thought about that a lot in the days leading up to the 26th, where Andrew was set to play as "vigorously as possible", as Andrew's dad told him. Not to mention that his parents constantly told themselves that if Andrew became a star basketball player, then the focus of their lives might be shifted from being "the incest family" to the "all-star basketball family".

His parents constantly told him that Andrew was scheduled to go to the gym right after school, and tell the coach that he was going to tryout. Every single day he was told that, it was almost like it was burned into his head. When the day finally came, Andrew was almost determined to get into the basketball game, to please his parents for once. When the final bell rang, his rushed as quickly as he could to the gym, when he was stopped by Amber, the girl who leaked the information about his brother and sister.

"Hey Andrew!" She said in a bubbly voice.

"Uh…hi..what's up?" Andrew replied in a shaky voice, who looked as if he was growing impatient.

"Oh, nothing, it's just that my older brother is gonna drive me and some friends to the movies to see the new James Bond, are you in?"

Andrew stopped completely. Of course, he still wanted to please his parents by going to basketball tryouts, but this might be a good time to integrate himself with the cool kids, as he was still struggling to recover from the leaked information. was this a good idea? Could he trust Amber?

"Um…uh…" Andrew stuttered out.

"My brother's buying us drinks…!"Amber said in a convincing manner.

"Ummm…sure?" Andrew finally spit out.

Amber's face lit up when he finally said that.

"Great! My friends are waiting at the edge of the parking lot, I'll take you there!"

Amber took his hand and lead him through the doors of the school out into the sunshine. Andrew thought to himself that he would just tell his parents that he didn't make the tryouts. Andrew followed her to an empty part of the parking lot, where a group of four kids were anxiously waiting in a used minivan, with a 20 something looking guy in the driver's seat.

"Oh god, finally! We've been waiting for ages for you!" He said to Amber.

"Chill out, James, I had to invite my friend Andrew!" Amber replied to him.

"Hey, Andrew! Why don't you take shotgun up here with me?" James said to Andrew.

"Oh..um.." Andrew stuttered. He was having some second thoughts about this. Would his parents be okay with him riding in Amber's brother's car?

"Come on, Andrew, are you coming or not?!" Amber shouted at him from inside the car, her already having climbed in. Without thinking, and using logic, he ran over to the passenger car door, opened it, flung himself in and shut it.

"All right, let's get a move on!" Amber's brother shouted.

James put the car in gear, and drove the car out of school property. Andrew was quiet most of the time, having thought relay over and over inside of his mind, thinking about what he'd just done, possibly throwing away a chance for his parents to be pleased with him eternally?

Could he really trust Amber, the same person who had told everyone that his siblings were romantically involved? He was thinking so hard, he didn't even notice when the car zipped past the local movie theatre. After about 20 minutes, Andrew started to wonder when they would get there, and noticed that everyone was getting pretty silent. They had driven for so long, they were in the part of Charleston, where virtually nothing existed except for farms. Andrew looked back at the passengers of the car, who were looking ahead, at the road, except for Amber who was smiling at him. Suddenly the car came to a full stop in the middle of the desolate road.

"Hey everyone, can everyone get out for a sec?" James asked.

Immediately, everyone got out of the car in an orderly fashion, except for Andrew, who remained in the car, a little bit scared of what was happening. Suddenly, the car door opened, for Andrew to find James' face, looking a little bit mad.

"What's the matter? Daydreaming of how you're going to fuck your sister?" James said menacingly at him.

Andrew felt like he had been shocked, figuratively and literally. James pulled him out of the car and threw him onto the side dirt to the road, and started to kick his stomach.

One of the boys from the car lunged at him and elbowed him in the shoulder, and started to punch his face. The pain felt unreal, almost like in a dream.. A girl rom the car ride pulled out her phone and started to record everything that was taking place, while finally Amber, approached him, ordering the two boys to stop beating him up. He went into her bag and pulled out a permanent marker, uncapped it and leaned towards, Andrew's badly beaten face.

"You know, you should just do everyone a favor and kill yourself." She said menacingly.

She pulled the maker to her forehead, where she started to write something, which didn't matter to Andrew, who as still trying to recover from the beating he had endured. When Amber pulled away from his forehead, she pulled out a phone, and took a picture of his face, with something written on his forehead, which she showed to Andrew.

On his forehead, was a big, "INBREEDER" written on his head, along with multiple cuts and bruises along his face, which made him look as ugly as possible. Amber let out a laugh, and got back into the minivan, which made her friends and brother follow. Andrew was still in a horrible haze and had an unbelievable headache which as too much to comprehend what was happening.

By the time his got to his senses, Amber and her friends, were lone gone, leaving him alone in the middle of nowhere, with nobody.

Andrew lunged forward blindly, jolting his eyes open, to find his sister leaning over at the foot of his bed, with her smiling, reassuring face that he wasn't reliving that horrible day.

"Hey Andrew, glad to see you're awake!" mabel cheerfully said in his face, which Andrew felt up immediately to find it was unharmed.

"I just wanted to say that breakfast is ready and that you should get there before it's gone!" She again said in a happy trance. She then planted a kiss on Andrew's forehead, and skipped down the attic stairs. Andrew took a few seconds to take in the legitimacy of reality and safely confirmed on his own that he was safely confined in the house of his inbreeding siblings.


End file.
